Some primary objectives of conventional retail stores are to provide consumers with the items they need and to do so efficiently so as to maximize sales. Some leading causes of lost sales are: lack of product availability, such as out of stock product (e.g., either product missing from shelf but elsewhere in the store/on-site or missing from shelf and entirely from that particular store/not on-site); moved or misplaced product; mislabeled product; and other instances where there is some problem or error associated with the displayed product (e.g., front-faced product is damaged, display is damaged or not facing the product appropriately, etc.). Currently, the only options for a consumer who cannot find what they are looking for are to forgo purchasing the product (i.e., meaning a lost sale) or to find a sales associate or employee and ask for their assistance in locating the product.
In conventional retail establishments or stores, associates are relied upon heavily to receive deliveries, inventory new product, place, check, count and replenish displayed product, (e.g., put product on shelves, in end units, in modulars, features, etc.), conduct price changes and reorganize the sales floor (e.g., move in and out seasonal product, freshen-up sales floor, etc.). Thus, an associate is not always readily available to render such assistance to a consumer and, even when they are, the time it takes for the associate to render this assistance is typically valuable time taken away from the other important things the associate is tasked with doing. In addition, the harder it is for the consumer to locate an associate to render such assistance, the more likely the consumer will give-up, get frustrated or simply not enjoy their overall shopping experience. Thus, the shopping experience would be more enjoyable to the consumer and more efficient for the store if the types of situations that lead to a customer needing the assistance of a store employee/associate are minimized or at least reduced. For example, the store could be operated more efficiently if there was a way to detect and correct the problems that typically lead to a customer needing the assistance of a store associate/employee to prevent the situation from presenting itself in the first place.
Some conventional systems used by stores to help improve sales and address some of these issues rely on trend analysis. For example, some stores use software systems that help remind or notify stores certain items that sell better on certain days (e.g., when it is raining, items a, b, c sell more than normal) or that sell better during certain times of year (e.g., during this time of year or season, items x, y, z sell more than normal). While these systems are helpful, their focus on analyzing sales by volume and/or sales by season or time of year limits their usefulness to just noting trends and they are not capable of addressing the more day-to-day problems stores face with customer assistance issues and lost sales due to some of the problems mentioned above (e.g., lack of product availability due to out of stock product, moved or misplaced product; mislabeled product; and other instances where there is some problem or error associated with a displayed product). For example, conventional software systems such as these do not detect when a product is oddly not selling over a short period of time particularly when the store's inventory management systems indicate the product is “on hand” (meaning on the shelf). Because of this, they also do not reduce the number of incidents where a customer requires store associate assistance.
Another shortcoming with conventional systems is that they do not allow store management to customize the system to focus on particular areas or items of interest and/or give store management the ability to treat certain items, store departments, stores or regions of stores differently from other items, store departments, stores or regions of stores. Similarly, the conventional systems are not readily changeable or tunable to re-focus the system on different things over time. Thus, store management may need to wade through mountains of data just to find the data points they care about which does not help run the store more efficiently.
In addition to the above issues, current store systems do not take advantage of the increased use of technology by store associates. Over the past several years, the number of stores that have their employees utilize mobile devices has dramatically increased. For example, some stores use handheld devices to allow associates to do on-the-spot price checks, inventory checks, and pick requests, particularly with respect to addressing the above-identified problems that result in customers needing and/or seeking associate assistance. Thus, conventional retail stores have not taken full advantage of this increased use of technology by stores in such a way that helps address some of the above-mentioned problems (e.g., lost sales and customer need for store associate assistance).
Accordingly, it has been determined that a need exists for improved systems, apparatus and methods for managing stores to overcome the above-mentioned problems.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale or to include all features, options or attachments. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.